Been looking into running my email server in my house as it has much stronger hardware i am at a loss as to what to do to forward the connection to a relay/proxy like service on a VPS note: this is more than just a smtp relay i have that working already, i need proxy for imap/pop (viewing email) and smtp(receiving email) i am looking at https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/mail-proxy/mail-proxy/ the idea is with nginx and the mail modules - a client connects to nginx on the vps. - nginx gets the user, password, and, port and converts them to headers - passes that to the auth_http directive which points to a web destination - that web destination takes the user, password, port and checks if they are valid (like it is an active user on the server) and returns info to be use as a reverse proxy what config should i make to have this work? The reason i want this setup is: - a more static ip on a server in a datacenter - spending less money as the vps does not need to be as powerful - minimize my emails going through a large comapny's server - more control over my email - bypass isp port 25 blocking

Home Laber's relay/proxy

noideaman

Been looking into running my email server in my house as it has much stronger hardware

i am at a loss as to what to do to forward the connection to a relay/proxy like service on a VPS
note: this is more than just a smtp relay i have that working already, i need proxy for imap/pop (viewing email) and smtp(receiving email)
i am looking at https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/mail-proxy/mail-proxy/

the idea is with nginx and the mail modules

a client connects to nginx on the vps.
nginx gets the user, password, and, port and converts them to headers
passes that to the auth_http directive which points to a web destination
that web destination takes the user, password, port and checks if they are valid (like it is an active user on the server) and returns info to be use as a reverse proxy

what config should i make to have this work?

The reason i want this setup is:

a more static ip on a server in a datacenter
spending less money as the vps does not need to be as powerful
minimize my emails going through a large comapny’s server
more control over my email
bypass isp port 25 blocking

esackbauer

I am running this on a residential connection for my homelab. No need for a VPS. The only thing which is really is crucially is setting up the DNS records and change then as my IP is dynamically. Luckily even my dynamic IPs have a predefined reverse DNS name from my ISP.
And of course you need a SMTP relay (there are free ones for low volumes) because you cannot send on port 25 from a dynamic IP. My ISP allows port 25 incoming.
If you cannot meet these requirements I would strongly suggest you run mailcow on the VPS only. Everything else makes it more complicated than it has to be.